Comments in Posts

Do you want Comments in Posts ?

  • Total voters
    218
I hope xenforo never adopt comments in posts as it's a complete and utter headf--k that is both confusing going back and forth when you revisit threads with the comments in. Not only that my theory (though it takes common sense) is bang on it's a clutter magnet for those that enjoy a nice clean layout. Like confusion? Like clutter? Enjoy inconsistency? Comments within posts is for you. It's just one of those concepts that just needs to be made illegal to have, imo.

Personally, I can't ever see xenforo adopting this, I hope they never do.
 
My first thoughts on seeing this feature in vB5 was - WTF? What sort of idiot would come up with a feature like this?

But, I decided to try & keep an open mind and see if it grew on me, it didn't, it's a mess, it makes it impossible to follow a thread, I can't see how you could make it work in a way that navigation remains easy AND ensures you don't miss both new comments and get to new posts. :confused:

The longer a thread is, the worst it becomes, if the 'new post' link takes you to the first 'new comment', you could end-up scrolling dozens of pages before you got to the first 'new post', having to check every post in between to see if further 'new comments' have been added. If the 'new post' link takes you to the first 'new post', you'll miss any 'new comments' made prior to that post, and have to scroll dozens of pages to back try and spot any 'new comments'.

It confuses the hell out of me, complete & absolute nightmare, my original first thoughts on this feature remains.

ETA: If any forum I use ever introduces such a feature, that would be the last day that I would use that forum, no matter how much I had enjoyed the place before.
 
Astrum said:
The main problem is what goes in these post comments? Do you limit it in size like a tweet? Even if it's the size of a tweet someone can say something that's worth discussing, where do you go from there? What about replies which may as well be comments? Having multiple ways to respond to a general thread is ultimately confusing.
Click to expand...

Nail on head, I've seen comments in vB becoming a separate discussion within a post within the thread, sometimes along very similar lines to the discussion taking place within the main thread itself.

It can easily split the discussion, and before you know it, in a long thread, the same discussion could be taking place all over the place.

It's the road to forum anarchy and total madness IMO.
 
The only time I could see comments in posts being useful would be if a staff member wanted to flag a post up for being particularly helpful, or use a comment in a post to correct erroneous information.. But to have a whole community commenting in posts... too messy.
 
DoctorWatsOn said:
The longer a thread is, the worst it becomes, if the 'new post' link takes you to the first 'new comment', you could end-up scrolling dozens of pages before you got to the first 'new post', having to check every post in between to see if further 'new comments' have been added.
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Interesting.
Comments shouldn't trigger a "New Post" it should just alert the person whose post was commented on.
The whole idea of a comment is that it is so "small" it's not adding enough information to be considered a new post.
 
Digital Doctor said:
Interesting.
Comments shouldn't trigger a "New Post" it should just alert the person whose post was commented on.
The whole idea of a comment is that it is so "small" it's not adding enough information to be considered a new post.
Click to expand...

I like my concept better, it should be made illegal to have any kind of comments within thread/posts. The benefits of that are <insert infinite list here> against the idea/concept.

Granted there are times when comments within an initial post is created works well (profiles here at xenforo) Blog entries, some add-ons. I don't know of any angle you could approach forum threads with comments within posts and they come out usable, uncluttered and damn right pleasurable browsing experience to the end user. Perhaps there is, though I can't see it.

That also being said, would be interesting to get another mockup thread going and seeing if it's possible to get comments in posts to an acceptable level where it's not cluttered, usuable etc etc. #missionimpossible
 
Digital Doctor said:
Interesting.
Comments shouldn't trigger a "New Post" it should just alert the person whose post was commented on.
The whole idea of a comment is that it is so "small" it's not adding enough information to be considered a new post.
Click to expand...
So, in effect comments in posts are a way to break open, multilateral communication?
 
Fun fact, albeit a bit OT: I asked for them to be turned of at vB.com. Turns out they can't be turned off because of a bug that would prevent anyone from posting anything. Not even turning things off works in vB5...
 
Comments in Posts reduces thread sprawl. It does promote organization and reduces clutter.
It's more geared for a site that prefers organization.

cellarius said:
So, in effect comments in posts are a way to break open, multilateral communication?
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People would always have a choice:
(1) comment - doesn't alert everyone - just the person who is being commented on.
(2) reply - everyone can read the reply.

Shelley said:
Granted there are times when comments within an initial post is created works well (profiles here at xenforo) Blog entries, some add-ons.
Click to expand...
Good example.
 
They might be more useful if they were restricted to a limited number of characters, a bit like tweets - maybe 140 or possibly less - so their impact on the post/thread would be minimal.

The comment should be visually small (and off to the right-hand side) so it doesn't detract from the post itself - which is does in vB5 - a one line post, quoting a previous post, followed by a comment makes the quote and comment "swallow up" the actual post (key response) content to the point where your eye doesn't know where to look for the important information (i.e. the reply).

Not a fan myself - not at all.
 
Clickfinity said:
They might be more useful if they were restricted to a limited number of characters, a bit like tweets - maybe 140 or possibly less - so their impact on the post/thread would be minimal.
Click to expand...
The comment should be visually small (and off to the right-hand side) so it doesn't detract from the post itself -
Click to expand...
It definitely should be small and inconspicuous - one line only.
 
It smacks too much of the comment sections for most news sites. It's difficult to follow, fractures the actual time line of the posts, and is generally a horrible idea.
 
Digital Doctor said:
Interesting.
Comments shouldn't trigger a "New Post" it should just alert the person whose post was commented on.
The whole idea of a comment is that it is so "small" it's not adding enough information to be considered a new post.
Click to expand...

I get the idea, although I still think it's a stupid idea, because even a very short comment could contain information of interest to thread followers beyond just the person that made the post that was commented on.

Certainly, the way it has been introduced into vB5, which appears to have no limit on the length of a comment, can and indeed does sometimes result in a discussion occurring within comments instead of the thread.

Even if there was a limit on the length of a comment, trying to get all users to understand the intention of the feature and how to use it correctly would be impossible IMO.

The idea that you could get users to use it correctly reminds me of the updated theory about 'monkeys and the complete works of William Shakespeare' ...

The theory that if you had a million monkey hitting keys at random on a keyboard for an infinite amount of time would almost surely result in a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare, has been disproven by the internet. :D
 
One way to avoid the problem of comments not alerting the whole thread would be:
Comments are full posts .... but after X days delay, they then display inside the Original post.
 
To be honest, I've only read the title of this thread and not its posts. Just want to react hoping XenForo will not add this feature, at least as default... especially after see how hard it is to read a simple discussion on a competitor forum.
 
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